


A Wicked Sword (A Gentle Kiss)

by mayflowers07



Series: i can be the one you call [6]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Beating, Blood, Blood and Violence, Death Threats, Electricity, Electrocution, Evil X is not a nice character in this, Gen, He’s hurting too, Hurt/Comfort, I’m definitely going to explore more of X and Ex’s relationship, Kidnapping, Platonic Kissing, Platonic Relationships, Rescue, Threats of Violence, Torture, Violence, Xisuma is also going through it too, but he takes his suffering out on others, just in a later fic, no beta we die like Bdubs in the Boomers, owww i really hurt Keralis in this one, poor Papa K
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28882932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayflowers07/pseuds/mayflowers07
Summary: Keralis loved easily- that was a surprise to no one. And at the top of the list of the many things he loved was his fellow Hermits.So when captured by Evil X to be apart of a plan to destroy Hermitcraft once and for all, Keralis knew he had to stay strong, that he couldn’t let Ex use him to harm his friendsNo matter how bad he got hurt because he refused.(Part of a series, but you don’t need to read the other parts to understand this one, it can be read as a standalone fic)
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), They are the best of families I will die on this hill
Series: i can be the one you call [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051148
Comments: 47
Kudos: 182





	A Wicked Sword (A Gentle Kiss)

**Author's Note:**

> Some basic notes from me to go over:
> 
> First off, this fic has quite a bit more violence and bloodshed in it then others I’ve written. Some of the other stories in this series have a little blood (xB’s and Tango’s)or violence but no blood (Doc’s and Etho’s), but this one has both and a fair bit of it, so please be warned.
> 
> Second, the relationship between Keralis and Xisuma is intended to be platonic on my part, but I write them fairly affectionate. I have nothing against other people shipping, it’s just not for me, so if you want to imagine Keralis and X as a ship in this, you’re more then welcome to.
> 
> Third, I’m not the most familiar with Keralis’ speech patterns. I tried to write dialogue for him that I could imagine him saying, but if anything is super inaccurate here’s my apology ahead of time.
> 
> Finally, in case you haven’t read the other fics, let me just really quickly explain the concept this series is based off of: in Hermitcraft there is a code phrase Xisuma introduced years ago- blue creeper. If anyone says the phrase, it means something is seriously wrong and that everything has to be stopped to deal with whoever said it. It’s a way to ensure that even though the Hermits all prank each other, fight in wars, and have conflicts, it stays friendly and nothing gets taken too far. It also acts as an emergency sos when someone is in immediate danger.

Keralis was tired.

Not the exhausted, overwhelmed, “about-to-pass-out-at-any-minute” tired most of the Hermits who worked themselves to perfection even if it meant many sleepless nights suffered from. (And even if it was, about half the server would be at his base in an instant to drag his butt to sleep.)

But a good kind of tired. It had been a very productive, satisfying day of many profits at his bookstore, much progress being made in his city, and lots of travel to visit his friends for both business and just for fun. He was beat though. As he soared gracefully through the rapidly darkening twilight sky, he was left to daydream about curling up in his bed and sleeping until at least noon tomorrow.

Maybe that’s why Keralis didn’t notice something was wrong until much too late.

When he got back to his office building and managed to somewhat gracefully touchdown on his balcony, he would later be embarrassed and defensive when admitting to the other Hermits that he somehow didn’t notice one of the windows to his office was already open. 

He didn’t notice that his desk had been pushed aside a few inches like someone had hit into it and that his newspapers were now scattered on the ground. 

And he definitely didn’t notice the shadowy figure crouched behind a wall watching him intensely with unblinking eyes for any sudden movement.

Nope, Keralis didn’t register any of that. All he did was walk into his shiny diamond room, stretch out his achy muscles while yawning, and hum a little tune to himself as he started shuffling around putting away his diamonds, armour, and other valuables he had acquired throughout his day.

It was then, while emptying his pockets of his spare emeralds so he could finally sleep, that he finally felt something off. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and the feeling of eyes watching him made a shiver travel down his spine. 

But Keralis wasn’t irrational. He knew the watcher was probably just another Hermit who was hiding away, most likely to prank him. 

… Probably.

Which is why when he stood up and turned to face his previously thought-to-be empty office, he also kept one hand on his sword at his belt, tiredness starting to fade away as adrenaline pumped through his veins. 

“Hello? Who is in here?”

There was no response. Just a suffocating silence. The night had fully come, taking away any comfort the sun had brought and leaving his office menacingly dark and shadowy with only a few spare lamps to light it.

Keralis cleared his throat and gripped his sword tighter, trying to ignore his sweaty palms and stammering voice. “Hello?” He tried calling out again, “... Bubbles? Brian? Is this a prank?”

Still nothing. Which was concerning. A friendly visitor would probably have come forward to say hi by now, not leave him panicking for no good reason.

Unless the unknown person in his base wasn’t friendly at all.

Without taking his eyes off of the room, Keralis raised his wrist with the communicator on it, planning to message the group chat and ask if anyone was hiding around before jumping to scary conclusions. 

That plan was thoroughly interrupted by the creek of a trapdoor being pushed up. An oh so familiar figure jumped out from behind a wall. Keralis only had time to shriek in surprise before they rushed towards him with intense malous in their eyes.

Now Keralis wasn’t the best fighter on the server, not by a long shot, but he wasn’t a complete rookie either. He could definitely hold his own in a brawl. But the combination of shock from someone attacking him along with the surprise at exactly who was attacking him threw him off guard for a few, crucial seconds. In that time, the figure managed to rip the sword off of Keralis’ belt and throw it across the room out of reach, as well as snatch the communicator off his wrist and smash it to many pieces on the floor. 

Which left Keralis completely defenceless and in some serious trouble.

He stared wide-eyed at the man in front of him, “What… how are you here?”

The man only gave a hollow, cruel chuckle before reaching forward and grabbing Keralis by the shoulders in an echo of an actual comforting hold. Keralis flinched at the contact and tried to wiggle a bit away from the man’s touch, but the hands held firm.

“Yeah, you’ll do. You’ll do just fine,” the armour-clad man remarked, his accent both achingly familiar and uncannily not familiar at all.

And before Keralis could ask what that meant, bursts of lightning traveled from the man’s arms into Keralis. White hot burning pain exploded across Keralis’ body as the electricity raced through him in waves. His vision went white, his mouth tasted of metal, every muscle was so tight he felt like he would snap in half. It was excruciating it was torture it was pain in the purest form it was all-consuming and awful and-

And it was over, leaving Keralis to slip into painfully numb unconsciousness- with the last sight before darkness consumed him being Evil X standing over him, staring with a cold, angry expression.

…

When Keralis woke up again, it was slowly. Gasps and small moans escaped him as the nothing of sleep was replaced by a throbbing headache and burning pain around his whole body but mostly concentrated around two points, one on each shoulder. He struggled to open his heavy eyelids. His neck also hurt too, probably because he had apparently fallen asleep sitting up last night with his head bent forward onto his chest.

Why had he fallen asleep sitting up? Yesterday he hadn’t been so tired that he couldn’t have made it to bed. He had done some road work in his city in the morning, visited Cleo for a bit in the afternoon, met up with Grian at the barge for some trades, stopped by some mini games to relax later in the day, gotten back home right before dark, and then-

Keralis’ eyes snapped open as memories came back to him, and he bolted upright when he realized what had happened. Or he tried to bolt upright. Instead he ended up jolting harshly in place when he was stopped by thick, coarse rope tying his two wrists tightly to the arms of a wooden chair with no room for any movement. That same rope also wrapped suffocatingly around his chest, trapping him to the back of the chair, as well as his ankles. There was also some sort of cloth shoved into his mouth and tied to the back of his head.

The bonds were very tight, leaving red welts and bruises along his bare arms when he struggled and jerked around trying to escape to no avail. Pure blind fear drove him to keep fighting against the knots, even though all he ended up doing was cutting himself on the sandpaper-like rope.

“Are you done yet?” Evil X asked boredly.

His voice snapped Keralis out of his mindless panic. He took that time to look up and analyze his surroundings. Keralis was tied down in the middle of his personal bedroom behind his office. The curtains of the windows were shut tight but from the cracks between the fabric the builder could see that it was daylight outside- something that was very concerning considering he had passed out in the beginning of the night before. Evil X was leaning against the wall to the right of him, watching him. The evil twin looked the exact same as Xisuma had always described him, an exact copy of himself save for the discolored armour and deeper, raspier voice.

Once he realized that Keralis had stopped struggling and was now gaping at him with wide eyes while heaving in anxious breaths, Evil X moved forward until he was standing only a few feet from Keralis, scrutinizing him with a calculating glare through his visor.

“Now that you’re finally awake, you better listen up, because I am only going to explain this once.” 

At this, Ex moved to subtly show off the shiny, sharp netherite sword buzzing with magical enchantments on his belt and threatened, “Trust me, you really don’t want to annoy me by making me repeat myself.

“I managed to break into the server when my brother, that absolute derp, accidentally left an opening in the code for a second while fixing a glitch. The problem is that if he figures this out, all he- or any admin- has to do is reprogram that line of code, and I’ll be banned into the void again. I need to be whitelisted to stay properly, and I can’t raise any suspicion.” 

Ex was trying to keep his voice factual and unrevealing, but Keralis had known Xisuma for years and years. He knew his best friend’s tells like the back of his hand. So of course he could pick out the desperation in Ex’s voice, despite his best efforts not to reveal anything.

Ex continued, “So here’s where you come in. You are going to walk into my brother’s base while he’s sleeping and steal his communicator for me so I can unban myself permanently and add myself to the whitelist. If he sees you, you’re going to play dumb and act like you’re just there for a visit.”

Keralis shook his head and stared at his captor with a judging look. Once Ex realized his prisoner wanted to speak, he moved to harshly tug the cloth gag out of Keralis’ mouth and off his head.

With a very dry throat and still pounding head, Keralis rasped out, “And why, Mister Evil Not-Shishwammy, would I help you do that? Help you get added when I know your goal is to destroy Shishwammy’s server?”

Ex paused for a moment and scanned over Keralis with something similar to a mocking pity. Then he leaned closer to whisper into Keralis’ ear in a slow, patronizing voice like he was talking to a child, “Because one: if you don’t do exactly what I just told you to do, my backup plan is to keep you hostage here until Xisuma comes looking for you himself, then kill him to get his communicator, as well as anyone else who might show up. But that would be so much work, and take so much time. You might as well save me the trouble, and save your friends’ lives, and just go with plan A.”

Keralis’ heart skipped a beat at the mention of killing the Hermits. He hadn’t been too scared for his own life the whole time Ex had been explaining the situation, but the thought of something bad happening to his friends made him unconsciously start struggling against the ropes on his wrist again.

Of course Ex noticed this and seemed to get sadistically excited at the nervous energy building in his hostage. He caressed a hand up Keralis’ arm and drawled, “And two…”

With that, the lightning was back.

Keralis screamed bloody murder. He couldn’t even catch his breath, because all he could do was scream at the top of his lungs. He tried to struggle, practically throwing his body out of the chair, but all he ended up doing was cutting himself even further, pooling blood on the floor under the spot his wrists were tied. 

The electricity was deep and hot and burning and everywhere. Keralis sobbed but he couldn't get away, he was trapped, just trapped with the pain and the screaming how long had he been screaming he was going to die screaming and crying oh please no-

It took Keralis a minute to realize that the shocking had stopped, 

And another minute after that to stop screaming from the residual pain it had left behind. 

His whole body shook, so hard he deliriously pondered that he may have been having a seizure. Blood was steadily dripping out of his nose mixing with his tears, and his vision was blurry, tilting and whirling in disgusting patterns he couldn’t keep track of. His chest was tight- like he had just suffered an asthma attack- as he sobbed at the awful burning pain lacing up and down his muscles and bones.

Through his agony, Keralis could barely feel as Ex grabbed the back of his hair and yanked it, turning him so he was forced to make eye contact. Keralis did whine at the touch, fearful of the electricity returning. 

“Two,” Ex repeated with the same tone as before, as if he hadn’t just tortured Keralis, “I am more than capable of causing you so much pain you'll be begging me for the opportunity to betray Xisuma in the fleeting chance I make it all stop. The choice is really yours.”

It took a while to gather his thoughts enough to respond, but eventually Keralis was able to croak out a soft “no” in between tear-filled, broken gasps. 

Even though he was suffering greatly, he knew he couldn’t hurt his server like Ex wanted. So he mustered up the energy to stutter in a weak voice, “I-I-I can’t help-p you-you hurt them.”

“Oh?” Ex cruelly taunted, “Is that a refusal I hear? Well, I know something that might help loosen up your tongue.”

Keralis flinched hard and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for more lightning and pain, and tried to prepare himself to endure it.

But then there was a quick, quiet knocking at the door that separated his office from his bedroom.

Both Keralis and Ex seemed shocked at the sudden noise. Before Keralis could yell for help though, Ex reached down to grab Keralis’ neck in a firm, threatening hold and let a few stray bolts of electricity run up and down his arm- a clear warning towards Keralis if he dared say anything.

So Keralis stayed quiet enough to hear a pin drop save for the pounding of his heart in his ears as the person who had knocked waited a few seconds before hitting the door again- this time followed by someone’s gentle voice.

“Keralis?” Joe asked through the door. “It’s Joe. Sorry to bother you, but it’s almost five in the afternoon, and no one’s seen you all day, plus you’re not answering your messages. I was nearby at the potion brewer, so I figured I’d come check up. Is everything okay?”

Ex cursed under his breath to himself, then leaned down to murmur to Keralis, “Get him to go away right now, or I will fry you with lightning until you’re brain dead and let him find your smoking corpse.”

No, he couldn’t let Ex do that to Joe, it would destroy him! So even though Keralis wanted nothing more than to beg Joe to run through the door and save him from this nightmare, he knew he would have to play along.

“Yeah, I’m-“ Keralis began, but then winced at his rough, cracking voice thick with tears. He prayed that Joe wouldn’t notice how wrecked he sounded.

He cleared his throat and tried again, “I’m fine Joe. I just woke up feeling… ah… not so good.”

“You’re sick?”

A few desperate tears fell from Keralis’ eyes, terrified of what would happen if he didn’t manage to convince Joe. Ex was staring expectantly at him, unmoving and unblinking.

“Yup, sick this whole morning,” Keralis anxiously rambled. “I’ve been napping all day, so I didn’t see any messages. Sorry. But I’m thinking it’s just a cold. I will be fine.”

“Are you sure? If you’re really sick someone should probably be with-“

“No!” Keralis cried out. He realized what he had done, and tried to pull himself together. For Joe. “No, no. I don’t want you to get your beautiful face sick too. If it is getting bad, I will message Shishwammyvoid.”

There was a tense silence as Joe considered to himself. Ex’s grip on Keralis’ neck tightened minutely. Both men in the room were on edge, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Well if you’re sure you’ll be okay, I’ll let everyone know what’s up and leave you to sleep,” Joe blessedly responded, though he did sound quite hesitant about it, “but promise that you’ll let me know if you get worse?”

Ex let out a small, relieved breath, happy by this outcome. But Keralis was paralyzed with horror. If Joe left, that was it. No one would come by, because they’d think he was resting, and Ex would be able to do whatever he wanted. Sooner or later, the evil twin would get his way and whitelist himself and then what? Hermitcraft would be destroyed, everyone in his family would be in great danger, and it would be all Keralis’ fault. 

He couldn’t let that happen. He needed help.

And luckily, there was a certain, more subtle, way to let Joe know he needed that help that hopefully Ex didn’t know about.

“I will. By the way, have you checked out that new shop on the island? The one that’s looking like a blue creeper?”

With such a sudden change in topic, Ex was suspiciously studying Keralis, probably trying to figure out what his move was. But Keralis didn’t care. He was intensely ignoring everything and honing in on Joe, hoping he would pick up on the message.

“... no, I haven’t,” Joe answered worriedly, “Do you know who built it?”

Keralis licked his dry lips and continued, “I think Shishwammy did. But there’s probably a reason he didn’t say anything to me, so maybe keep quiet and let him know without giving it away?”

“I will, Keralis. Don’t worry, I will,” Joe insisted. “I will right away… I’m going to go now Keralis… can you stay safe until I visit again?”

The realization that Joe was nervous because he knew something was wrong and that Joe was going to go get help hit Keralis hard, along with a wave of cooling relief. His bottom lip quivered and more tears fell down his face, but Keralis kept it together long enough to reply, “I’m gonna try my best Joe. I hope to see you soon.”

And with that, there was a momentary pause, like Joe didn’t want to leave Keralis alone, but eventually the sound of fireworks filled the air, getting fainter and fainter as Joe flew away, until there was just silence.

As soon as he was sure Joe was completely out of earshot, Ex turned on Keralis and demanded, “What was that? Why did you say that about the shop?” 

Damn, so he had picked up on something being off.

When Keralis didn’t answer quickly enough, only fixing him with a fake, confused look, Ex skipped the lightning and instead hit Keralis as hard as he could across the face with the hilt of his sword.

Keralis yelped as his head was wrenched to the side from the impact. Black spots danced across his eyes and more blood spurted out of his nose onto his shirt and pants. 

“Don’t play dumb! Why did you say that about the shop?” Ex asked again, this time voice raised to a yell.

“I don’t-”

Crack! Another hit made his entire face explode in pain. His ears began ringing.

“I didn’t mean anythi-”

Crack! The skin on his forehead broke open, letting hot blood fall into his eyes. 

“Stop! I-”

Crack! Something hard was in his mouth, and when Keralis blearily turned to the side and spit out a glob of blood, a piece of his front teeth came with it.

“No! Don’t-”

Crack! 

Crack! 

Crack!

Blow after blow rained down on Keralis, on his bruised cheeks, on his cut temples, on his dislocated jaw, on his swollen eyes and broken nose and everywhere in between, one after the other. It was so much raw, sharp, jarring pain all at once that he ended up going unconscious for a few moments. 

When he surfaced, his vision was fuzzy and his hearing was like everything had gone underwater. His whole face was one swollen black hole of radiating pain, varying degrees of it washing over him and penetrating deep into his skull. Silent tears continued to leak from his eyes. 

A small, ugly part or Keralis’ mind just hoped Ex would just knock him out already to end the torture.

Ex was still in Keralis’ face, seething with anger. He twisted his hands into the front of Keralis’ shirt and heaved him forward. Keralis whimpered as the sudden jolting movement relit the stinging pain in his facial wounds. 

“What Did You Tell Him!” Ex roared at him.

“It was a code!” Keralis screeched instinctually to escape the overwhelming fear and agony, and then began pathetically bawling once he realized what he had done. 

Surprisingly Ex actually seemed a bit scared at Keralis’ explanation, though naturally he hid it well with more anger.

“Code? What do you mean? What code?!”

Keralis couldn’t answer, he was too busy hysterically sobbing. Because it was over. Ex knew the code. Ex was going to stop Xisuma and Joe and whoever else came to save him. Ex was going to whitelist himself and destroy Hermitcraft. Ex was going to win.

And it was all Keralis’ fault.

So all Keralis could do was disappear into his own mind to cry.

Apparently Ex realized or heard something that Keralis didn’t, because when Keralis next blinked, Ex was standing behind him facing the bedroom door, sword out and blade placed threateningly across Keralis’ throat. 

This move made sense when the door to his bedroom flew open to reveal Joe, as well as Xisuma and xB standing there, swords drawn and ready for a fight.

Ex was prepared for them though. As soon as his brother appeared, the evil twin snarled, “Take one more step, and you can watch this one bleed out right here and now when I split his neck open.”

Xisuma was horrified. His eyes were welling with tears at the sight of Keralis so broken and abused at the hands of his own family. At every sad noise and little flinch Keralis gave as he continued to cry, Xisuma looked like his heart was breaking a bit more.

Xisuma was so torn up and frozen in grief and guilt that it ended up being xB, who had gone awfully pale, that spoke first. “Keralis… are you okay?”

Well, that was a bit of a stupid question. Keralis felt numb and light, his mind floating away from his body so everything that was happening felt like he was watching it from third person. His whole face was so swollen and pained he could barely see his friends in front of him or feel his lips move as he tried to answer. But he needed to make sure no one else got hurt. “Shishwammy don’t give him-” he slurred.

His plea was cut off with a whimper as Ex pressed the sword harder against Keralis’ neck. Blood began forming on the cut and trickling down onto his white t-shirt, joining the many other crimson splatters. 

xB gave a short yell of horror and pleaded Ex to stop once he saw what Ex was doing, and Joe looked half a second away from lunging forward to try and save Keralis himself. But Xisuma? The drawing of blood, the active hurting of Keralis- of his Keralis- was enough to turn the admin’s silent horror into growing rage.

“That’s enough Evil X. Why have you done this?” Xisuma asked.

Ex sneered, “Why have I done this? That’s rich coming from you. You’re the one who banished me into the Void, you’re the one who left me to float alone forever, you’re the one who took everything from me!”

Keralis flinched and made a soft panicked noise under his breath as the one who held a weapon to his neck screamed. Joe went wide-eyed at this and gave Keralis a soft, shaky smile to try and keep him calm, but Keralis’ vision was going darker and darker by the second, and everything in the room sounded miles and miles away. He was barely aware of the room's dead silence after that speech, which was only broken by Xisuma speaking up, his voice shaking with barely controlled anger.

“That’s why?” He seethed. “That’s why you’ve tortured Keralis? To get your own sick form of justice or vengeance on me?”

“You have no idea how I’ve suffered, Xisuma!”

“So you take it out on Keralis?! On my server?! Brother, I’m sorry you’ve been hurt before, but this is too far even for you!”

Ex laughed, something menacing and cruel. His free hand not holding the sword that was threatening Keralis’ life reached forward in an open-palm gesture to Xisuma. “Give me your communicator, or you’ll see exactly how much farther I’m willing to take this.”

But Xisuma didn’t budge. He just stared his brother down with anger, regret, and something akin to sadness. “I’m sorry Ex. Maybe if you had just gone after me I’d find it in my heart to show you mercy, but you hurt one of my Hermits. That’s something I can never forgive. Bdubs, now!”

The sound of shattering glass from behind them,

Ex’s roar of anger and the feel of the sword being yanked away from his neck,

Hands, many hands, untying him, touching his face, holding him steady as they lowered him to lie down on the ground, pouring potions and bandages over him,

Voices, friendly voices, family voices, crying for him, telling him to breath, telling him to come back to them, it’s going to be okay Keralis, he can’t hurt you, we’re going to take care of you, I’m going to message the others about what happened, X I think he might have a concussion, look at these burns, oh god what did he do to you?

All of it echoed and blurred in Keralis’ dazed mind. His eyes were closed (when had they closed?), and all he wanted to do was sleep now that Ex was gone.

With what little consciousness he could still cling to, Keralis could feel someone hugging him tightly, clinging to him and rocking him back and forth in a soothing way. This other person was also crying, as felt by the occasional sobs shaking through their body.

When that person murmured in a voice thick with tears, “I’m so sorry my friend,” Keralis was saddened to find that the person crying was Xisuma. And that wouldn't do. That was Shishwammy! He shouldn’t be so upset!

So with monumental effort fighting against the pull of sleep on his body, Keralis forced himself to open up his eyes. Every ache, every throbbing wound and deep pain was felt all over again, but that was okay. 

Because through his fading vision, Keralis was able to vaguely see that the person holding him against their chest with his head leaned against their shoulder was in fact Xisuma. Shishwammy was safe. Everyone was safe. He hadn’t failed.

The others were there too. Bdubs was dabbing away some of the congealed, bloody mess on his face, xB was pouring splash potions on cloth and laying them on some of the snaking electrical burns along Keralis’ arms, and Joe was gently holding Keralis’ arms still for xB to work.

When Xisuma noticed that Keralis was blinking up at them with half-lidded eyes, he only seemed to start crying harder. “This is all my fault. I should have been looking out for him. I should have been here.”

Joe and Bdubs both gave soft noises of protest, but it was Keralis who mumbled, “Shishwammy… is okay?”

Xisuma choked back a sob. He momentarily let go of Keralis to shock everyone in the room by pulling his helmet off. His hair and beard were a long tousled medium brown, and he had sparkling purple eyes and freckles that danced like stars, especially with the tears sparkling on them. 

“Yeah Keralis,” the admin ducked down to lean his forehead against the top of Keralis’ head and muttered, “I’m okay.”

Keralis felt peace overcome him, bringing with it the need to rest. His eyes drooped down until they were just barely not closed, but he couldn’t leave them just yet. He had to be sure.

“Bubbles and xB and Joe are okay?”

Bdubs gave a wet laugh and assured, “Yeah, sweetface. I’m at least better off than you.”

“Almost gave me a heart attack buddy with that code, but I’m sure glad I heard it. I’m okay though,” Joe answered.

Finally xB sniffled, “I’m fine buddy. Let’s focus on you for a bit.”

Xisuma seemed to realize what Keralis had been getting at with his questions. So right before the darkness fully consumed Keralis and he fell into the blissful, quiet sleep he had been wanting since last night, he vaguely felt Xisuma press a soft kiss to the top of his head. 

“You did good Keralis. You made sure he couldn’t hurt any of us. Thank you. You can rest now, we’re going to take care of you.”

So that’s what Keralis did; he got to rest at last.

Because he hadn’t failed- his family was fine, Ex was not going to be able to hurt them, no one was in danger.

Which made it all okay if Keralis was a little bit worse for the wear, because he knew Shishwammy and the other Hermits were going to look out for him too.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t intend to get a fic out this soon after the last one, but inspiration comes at wild times, and once I started writing I just couldn’t stop. So enjoy this treat from me I guess lol
> 
> I’ve noticed that Keralis is a bit like Doc- severely lacking in the hurt/comfort department. Which is a shame because I love Papa K (ignore the gratuitous amounts of angst I wrote for him).
> 
> Also, Xisuma and his relationship with Evil X, as well as his negative thoughts and self blame we see a bit of at the end is definitely somethings I’m going to explore in later fics. This story is going to get brought up again, because Xisuma’s feelings of failing his Hermits are going to continue throughout the rest of the series. So stay tuned for that.
> 
> I really don’t know who I’m going to be writing for next. Potentially one of the more background guys like Jevin or Hypno, but I make no promises. If you have any headcanons or ideas about this AU, please let me know in the comments down below! I can’t always write them, but I love seeing what you guys come up with. Thank you all for the wonderful support this series has been getting, you’re all amazing!
> 
> (Also I’m my tumblr account is mayflowers07 if any of you want to go follow me there)


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